EdTechX Blog 360

The Path to an AI Future in Education & Workplace Training โ€” EdTechX Opening Insights 2026

Written by EdTechX 360 | Aug 24, 2026, 3:48:10โ€ฏPM

๐ŸŽฅ Missed the opening keynote at EdTechX Summit 2026? It's live now.

To kick off the 12th edition of EdTechX, Charles McIntyre (CEO & Founder) and Rory Henson (Partner) of IBIS Capital took the stage to revisit a bold set of predictions from last yearโ€ฆ and the results were hard to ignore.

From the rise of autonomous AI agents to a 16% drop in junior job openings tied to AI exposure, from the academic "cheating crisis" to a sobering shift in how AI researchers themselves view catastrophic risk, Charles and Rory unpacked what's actually happened in the last twelve months.

But this wasn't just a look back. They laid out a new framework for the industry: AI as both tutor and apprentice, and three concrete moves for L&D and education leaders in 2026 โ€” building the "alignment infrastructure," redefining AI fluency as a civic literacy (not just prompt-writing), and shifting assessment from product to process.

๐€๐ฌ ๐‚๐ก๐š๐ซ๐ฅ๐ž๐ฌ ๐ฉ๐ฎ๐ญ ๐ข๐ญ: "2026 ๐ข๐ฌ ๐ญ๐ก๐ž ๐ฒ๐ž๐š๐ซ ๐€๐ˆ ๐ ๐จ๐ญ ๐š ๐ญ๐ž๐š๐œ๐ก๐ž๐ซ. ๐‹๐ž๐ญ'๐ฌ ๐ฆ๐š๐ค๐ž ๐ฌ๐ฎ๐ซ๐ž ๐ข๐ญ'๐ฌ ๐š ๐ ๐จ๐จ๐ ๐จ๐ง๐ž." ๐Ÿ”— Watch the full opening keynote now:

๐Ÿ‘ Huge thanks to Charles McIntyre and Rory Henson for setting the tone for an incredible day at EdTechX 2026.